I have loss of hearing and wear hearing aids. We are in the need for a new car and want a 4-wheel drive but it must be quiet.
While cheaper is always better! this particular car might not be as we want to do road trips across the country while we still can .
Road noise is very difficult on long trips as I cannot hear my H and I get tired from the noise. Both of our current cars are noisy and D needs one of them, anyway, as she is drivng a 1995 Subaru Imprezza and we are growing concerned.
I have not gone out in years to look a cars but love the neighbors Lexis Suv (small) and while we are a Suberu family they simply are too noisy.
Anyone?–cannot affor a Tessa–just saying.
Also, not set on an SUV but must have all wheel drive. I like sedans best for the trunk’s privacy but think that if we give up H’s suburu legacy wagon we might want a hauler.
I’ve been very happy with my Volvo XC 90, and it is quiet. Volvo has sedans and SUVs with AWD. But I must admit, I’m not sure I’m willing to spring for another Volvo XC90.
I have an AWD Jeep Liberty. Its pretty quiet, although I don’t have the best hearing either.
My dog can hear me drop something into his bowl from another room, even though I didnt hear it myself!
Lexus RX 450 is a hybrid SUV that’s quiet. We have a 10 year old RX 400, the original hybrid version, and it’s still going strong.
I love it: smooth ride and quiet
In my experience, Audis and Mercedes are the quietest cars. I also concur with zeebamom about the role of tires in road noise. Harder long-wear tires are definitely noisier.
I have found that body-on-frame SUVs tend to have the best ride quality from a road noise/harshness perspective.
We rented a 4runner last summer and I was quite impressed with it. Very quiet, solid, and it has incredible 4WD capabilities. Fantastic road trip vehicle! The only downside is mediocre fuel economy.
I recently bought a small Mercedes SUV the GLK 350. It is really quiet. Sometimes I can’t tell if the engine is on. I don’t have the all wheel drive model but it does come in AWD.
Hybrids are quiet due to the electric operation when they have sufficient charge, since they’re operating on electric power or the engine is simply supplementing the electric motors. That wouldn’t necessarily apply on a long road trip where the charge would be exhausted early on and the vehicle would be operating solely on the gas engine. So in your test drives you’ll want to be cautious about making assumptions of noise levels based on electric operation during a short drive.
Car magazines tend to measure and report noise levels at speed. I know Car and Driver usually includes the decibel level at 70 mph or some such (I always skip over that info). Information like that is pretty objective so I’d search around online to see if you kind that sort of information in reviews.
Lexus does have a reputation for making very quiet cars so they’d be on my personal shortlist if that was a priority. Probably Cadillac and Lincoln as well. In the non-premium brands I think Hyundai has been making quiet cabins a priority in their larger cars as well.
I have a 2014 (latest gen style) Acura MDX and both my wife and I remarked after getting it how quiet the cabin was but that’s compared to the noisy SUV we had before.
Some of the more ‘premium’ vehicles may be quieter because the manufacturer is willing/able to incur the costs in making the vehicle quieter than a lower cost similar vehicle. For example, the MDX has specially laminated windows for noise reduction, insulation placed at strategic spots, active engine mounts, and active noise cancellation - i.e. kind of like a Bose headphone where the vehicle matches random noise (like tire or road noise) with the opposite phase sound pumped through the speakers to attempt to cancel out the noise.
Since you wear hearing aids where your hearing device and ears will respond to sound frequencies and decibel levels differently than one without hearing aids, it’s best that you try out a number of vehicles to see how it works for ‘you’ specifically. Make sure you drive it on the freeway at the speed you’d normally drive on the freeway paying extra close attention to how ‘you’ think the sound level is in the vehicle. Obviously, don’t let a salesperson blast the radio during this test drive as they’re wont to do.
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